The Pregnancy Experience

I never pictured myself pregnant. Is that weird? I always planned on having kids some day but I never actually pictured myself pregnant. Now that I am nearing the third trimester, I’m finally starting to feel pregnant. For the last 6 months I have hardly felt any different than before I started growing a human! (Besides the horrible morning sickness for the first 13 weeks).

I should probably consider myself lucky, seeing as some women have extreme discomfort before this point, but to be honest it didn’t even feel real until I felt her first kicks (around 20 weeks – 7 weeks ago). Now that she’s moving so much, I have a constant reminder that I have a baby growing inside me – that’s crazy!

While I’ve had brief discussions with my mom and grandmother about children, I got few details on what its actually like to be pregnant. It’s not their fault – I’m sure they would have told me if I’d asked…I just never even thought to do so. I was not prepared for the crazy news, so immediately after finding out I was pregnant, I began my research. Now ideally, you’re planning on getting pregnant and you can do your research beforehand. As many of us know, however, this is often not the case. Having a surprise pregnancy combined with knowing little to nothing about pregnancy can be overwhelming!

So I learned quickly that there were a lot of changes that had to happen. For one, I could no longer have as many cups of coffee as I wanted. In fact – for the first time in my life, coffee seems to affect me! If I have more than 1 8oz cup of coffee, my heart races and I can’t settle down. At first I was scared that something was wrong with either me or baby, but thanks to the Dr. in our pockets (google), I realized that I just needed to cut back on the caffeine. You have to think about literally everything that goes into your body when you’re pregnant! You know what else? I turned 21 only a few months after finding out about the baby. No “first legal drink” for me on my 21st, although I did take a sip of the champagne that the restaurant brought me after finding out it was my 21st birthday (thanks Bonefish Grill).

Now that I’m getting further along, I’m noticing the changes in my body more easily. Sleeping is starting to become difficult; especially because I have one of those rare husbands who actually likes to be close to their partner when they’re sleeping. While I normally love this, it definitely makes the whole pregnancy sleeping thing harder. I never thought I’d see the day where I actually wanted to have my back to him at night, but apparently pregnancy makes you do crazy things.

Speaking of which – my emotions? All over the place. I thought they were bad before I was pregnant…I was wrong. I now cry over stupid little things like forgetting my keys on the counter (and having to go back inside to get them) or a commercial with the word “dad” in it. And where has my memory gone? I can’t seem to recall anything when I need it and my poor husband constantly has to answer the “what word am I looking for?” question. What a trooper.

The last thing I want to mention is how pregnancy has already changed my perception of myself. Yes, I notice the weight I’m gaining and the softness where there used to be muscle…but I also notice the way my body is preparing to bring a new life into the world. I am just amazed that God created us in such a way as to nurture and grow a human inside our own body for 9 months! This experience is a roller-coaster; its wonderful and scary all at the same time…but it’s amazing. This is something not everyone gets to experience and I’m so blessed that God decided to bestow me with this gift.

About me

I'm Madeline Holmes, the creator and owner of this blog. It is dedicated primarily to sharing my life as a young wife and mother, although you can also find content on health, beauty, and fashion. Join me in celebrating the beauty of life as we know it!